1. Field of the Invention.
This invention concerns vehicle washing machines and more particularly vehicle washing machines adapted to wash relatively large vehicles, such as buses and vans. Co-pending Pat. application Ser. No. 666,123, filed on Mar. 11, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,766, discloses a vehicle washing machine particularly adapted to wash large vehicles such as buses, vans, etc. which arrangement includes front and rear horizontally disposed brushes which are adapted to wash the top, front, and rear exterior portions of such vehicles by moving in a guide track structure so as to follow the contour of the vehicle by virtue of being mounted on an inclined frame-work. Also disclosed are a pair of inclined brushes, which are located to engage the vehicle as it passes through the wash lane machine while the brushes are rotating to scrub the vehicle sides. While the horizontally extending front and rear brushes are adaptable to vehicles of different heights, the side brushes are adapted to accommodate only minor variations in vehicle widths and if a single such machine were to be adapted to vehicles of substantially varying widths, such as buses and vans, substantial modification of the machine would be necessitated.
Another problem encountered in adapting such machines to vehicles of substantially varying width is that guiding of the vehicle in the wash lane is rendered more difficult such that there is an increased possibility of the vehicle passing through the machine in an off center line of movement. Such off center condition may result in one of the side brushes coming into increasingly heavy engagement with one of the vehicle sides while the oppositely disposed side brush would be in increasingly reduced pressure engagement, essentially causing excessive brush pressure on the other side, if the centering of the vehicle is beyond the slight variations normally accommodated by the mounting of such brushes.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle washing machine which is readily and automatically adaptable to vehicles substantially varying side widths.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle washing machine of the type having side brushes adapted to scrub the vehicle side with a mounting arrangement for such side brushes which accommodates off center positioning of the vehicle with respect to the brushes, without creating either excessive or inadequate side brush pressure, as the vehicle passes between the brushes.